


The Student of the Rose

by Rex_Lupin



Series: The Cinder and the Rose [2]
Category: RWBY
Genre: Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Cinder is an Unreliable Narrator, Everyone Needs A Hug, Found Family, Gen, Healthy Coping Mechanisms, Past Child Abuse, Time Travel
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-09
Updated: 2021-02-11
Packaged: 2021-03-15 18:08:00
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,481
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29318385
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rex_Lupin/pseuds/Rex_Lupin
Summary: The ongoing struggles and mishaps of little Cinder and her new guardian - Ruby Rose from the future.
Relationships: Ruby Rose & Cinder Fall
Series: The Cinder and the Rose [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2153556
Comments: 20
Kudos: 93





	1. What good is in a Mother?

Cinder wasn't sure what to make of her... new guardian. Just about the only thing she was sure about was that Miss Rose was a polar opposite of the Madam, but she wasn't sure if that was a  _ good  _ thing or not. 

There were no shocks. 

No mantras. 

No teasing, no mocking, no cruelty. 

Cinder wondered when the  _ other  _ shoe was going to drop. 

It couldn't be far now, could it? 

Miss Rose was  _ strange.  _ She was mumbling dates to herself on occasion. Cinder could swear some of those dates were far,  _ far  _ ahead. What was Miss Rose up to? 

Cinder put that thought out of her mind. It wasn't her business.

Even though she sometimes thought she'd like to. 

What drew her in, however, was Miss Rose's weapon. Something this huge, this clunky... And she wielded it with such deadly precision... 

Cinder wondered if she could one day do something like that too. 

For over a week, she agonised over the thought, even as Miss Rose flit in and out of the Academy dorm room they'd been given. 

For over a week, she mentally compared Miss Rose with the Madam. Whereas the Madam had been measured, Miss Rose was... Chaotic. When before, she had survived on room service leftovers, now Miss Rose kept her fed - and fed well! She could even have  _ cookies!  _ She'd never had  _ those  _ before. 

Fed. 

What a strange thought. 

She'd dreamed of being fed, for the longest time, and now... She just had it? Just like that? 

Cinder wondered what it was that Miss Rose  _ wanted  _ of her. There had to be  _ something,  _ right? 

Miss Rose was cheerful with her and cheerful with anyone else she interacted with, but Cinder was well acquainted with masks. She could tell that Miss Rose was wearing one. 

So, one night, when Miss Rose was asleep, she tested the waters. She tried to take Miss Rose's weapon, the one Miss Rose kept telling her not to touch, with her to the vents. To inspect it. And, to see what Miss Rose looked like under her mask. 

Cinder tried to pick up and immediately fell into a tangled heap. This... How heavy was that?  _ How strong was Miss Rose?  _

"Cinder..." 

That was a growl. Cinder suddenly realised that she had miscalculated, and  _ badly.  _ This is where she'd die, she was certain of it. 

She raised her arms in a futile attempt to defend herself... 

...where was the attack? 

Softly, very softly came a pair of arms, encircling her but not trapping her there. Cinder stiffened. 

"I'm sorry," Miss Rose's voice murmured. "I'm so,  _ so  _ sorry for giving you the wrong impression. I'm not mad. I'm sorry. I just... Crescent Rose is a very dangerous weapon, Cinder, and she's very precious to me. I don't want her to be stained with anyone's blood..." 

"Could you train me then?" 

Cinder clamped her mouth shut, but the words were already out. 

Miss Rose pulled back and regarded her with a complicated expression. "The scythe is one of the most dangerous weapons on Remnant," she said quietly. "Are you sure?" 

Cinder nodded rapidly. Miss Rose was a Huntress. Huntresses were strong. Huntresses were never helpless. Huntresses were  _ free. _

Miss Rose blinked, and her silver eyes gained a twinkle. "Well then. Let's train you!" 

<====\\\=> <=//====>

Cinder had been with Miss Rose for a month now, and she had yet to see Miss Rose frazzled by anything. So when one day, in one of Atlas Academy's training rooms, Miss Rose happened to glance at the door behind Cinder and freeze completely, silver eyes glistening with unshed tears, Cinder was instantly on high alert. 

It was a Huntress standing there, a cloaked woman, and Cinder was already cataloguing for possible weaknesses. 

She didn't care that she wouldn't be able to win against the Huntress. Her life didn't matter. Even though she was free... Even though she was free, it was Miss Rose who deserved happiness more than she. And if the strange Huntress was planning on making Miss Rose cry... 

"...Mom," Miss Rose whispered. Cinder tightened her grip on her practice scythe. That bode ill. Nothing good ever came from a mother. 

"I didn't realise I was this early," Miss Rose whispered. "I didn't- I -" 

"I will protect you, Miss Rose," Cinder said, and her voice wasn't shaking at all as she made her declaration. 

In a flash of rose petals, Miss Rose was in front of her, hands gently placed on Cinder's shoulders. "No! Don't- don't ever think that you're obligated to protect me- and especially not from-" 

As Miss Rose worried her lip, Cinder kept an eye on the Huntress. 

Not all people were good. Especially not mothers. 

But the woman - indeed resembling Miss Rose greatly - had made no move to step forward, or back. She just stood there. Taken only the slightest bit aback. 

"...Cinder," Miss Rose said softly. "It... It's going to be okay. Okay? She won't hurt me. Or you. I won't let her. I'm... I'm faster." 

She didn't look like she knew what she was saying, Cinder thought. Inwardly. 

"Okay," she told Miss Rose. "But words hurt too." 

Cinder wasn't sure if Miss Rose knew. She was a very strange person, after all. 

Miss Rose took several deep breaths and smiled at her. Then she rose and finally turned around. 

The woman in a white cloak started as Miss Rose finally addressed her. "S-Summer Rose. What, um, what are you doing here...?" 

She didn't answer straight away, content to rather just look at the two of them. Miss Rose fidgeted. 

"Well, when James told Oz that someone claiming to be my daughter from the future showed up, I s'pose I couldn't help myself," Summer Rose noted lightly. She tilted her head. "The resemblance is  _ uncanny."  _

Her what from when. 

Cinder risked a look at Miss Rose. She was clutching her scythe like a lifeline. "Ozpin knows already...? And he sent you?" 

"...Mhmm," Summer replied lightly. "Well, you have the appearance down pat, sure, but you don't act anything like I'd have expected my daughters to act." 

"And what's  _ that?"  _ someone sneered. Cinder suddenly realized that the someone in question was herself, and looked around for a weapon. Or maybe an escape route. 

Summer looked taken aback. Miss Rose was... Smiling? Cinder had no idea what emotion was in the smile, but she had a feeling it was a positive one. 

"Well for one, I was expecting more optimism," Summer remarked, actually answering her question.  _ "Maybe  _ cocksurety? Certainly not... Not..." 

The woman's expression fell. "...Certainly not loss and longing," she finished. "I'm dead in the future, aren't I?" 

Miss Rose nodded rapidly. Cinder was looking between the two. 

"...I'll come back later," the Huntress decided. Cinder kept an eye on her for as long as it took for her to disappear behind the corner, before she felt safe enough to turn back to Miss Rose. 

She stopped. 

Miss Rose had fallen on her knees, tear tracks running from both eyes. 

"...Miss Rose?" Cinder tried. 

No response. Cinder floundered. She wasn't sure if she was even  _ allowed  _ to try and comfort Miss Rose. What if the Huntress lost control? Or something? 

"Miss Rose," Cinder tried again. "Are you there?" 

There was a sniffle. Cinder blanched. She was still  _ ten!  _ She wasn't equipped to deal with this! Any of this! 

Cinder  _ very carefully  _ placed the wooden practice weapon down. At least neither of them was using lethal weapons, right? 

She then, before she could shake off the sudden urge, gave Miss Rose a very quick hug and darted away.

Miss Rose let out a startled laugh. She made no other moves. 

She'd stopped sniffling, at least? 

"C'mere, Cinder," Miss Rose murmured. "I'm... Not mad. Just..." 

_ Wearing your mask again,  _ Cinder didn't say. She simply nodded solemnly and picked up the practice scythe again.  _ Let's go,  _ she tried to say without saying it.  _ Take your mind off it.  _

Miss Rose laughed and picked up her own wooden scythe. "I get it, I get it. Okay. Your stance is still too rigid, Cinder..." 


	2. Damaged Glass

Cinder was still baffled by her guardian. Oh, she was slowly starting to believe that Miss Rose meant well, if only for how she acted, but... It was for how she acted. Cinder just couldn't wrap her mind around it. 

Miss Rose blatantly talked back at authority figures and received no punishment whatsoever for it, and Cinder couldn't figure out how she did it. She was only seven years older than Cinder, it couldn't have been an age thing! 

Was it the future thing? 

Cinder hadn't dared to ask Miss Rose about that topic just yet, and Miss Rose didn't volunteer any information either. But Cinder couldn't help but ponder over it. 

She didn't know much. Only what Summer Rose had said. 

'My daughter from the future.'

'I'm dead, aren't I?' 

That said something, but Cinder just didn't know  _ what.  _ Summer Rose had spoken of daughters already, so Miss Rose couldn't have been more than six- or seventeen at the highest- years from, well, the future. 

There was one piece of information that Cinder couldn't let go of. 

If Miss Rose was from the future... Then who had rescued her originally? 

Cinder suspected that the answer was "no one", and she didn't like that thought. At all. 

And then there was the way Miss Rose kept looking at her when she thought Cinder wasn't looking... 

At the end of a yet another spar, Cinder put the practice weapon down and took the leap of faith. 

"Miss Rose?" 

"Yes, Cinder?" Miss Rose replied distractedly as she fiddled with her own practice weapon. 

"Were we enemies in the future?" 

Seeing Miss Rose yelp and fumble her weapon out of her hands wasn't funny in the slightest and Cinder will forever deny giggling over the completely poleaxed look on Miss Rose's face. 

"Y-you figured all that out just from what Mom said...?" Miss Rose whispered. 

Cinder shrugged. It was just facts. "Were we?" she repeated the question, with slightly more bravado this time. 

Miss Rose sighed and sat down on the floor. "I guess. At the end of it, I think she was just... A very broken person? Maybe even before Salem got to her?  _ I'm starting to understand why,"  _ she murmured to herself. 

Cinder heard, anyway. She'd picked up the habit at the Glass Unicorn and never just... put it down, to be honest. It was an useful skill, she reckoned. 

She had a lot of questions, but she didn't ask any of them. "Thank you," she said instead. "For, uh, telling me." 

In the back of her mind, she filed away the name 'Salem'. Under 'Avoid'. Just in case. 

<====\\\=> <=//====>

Life, amazingly, fell into a comfortable rhythm. Miss Rose not once asked Cinder for any chores, although she herself never did any either. Occasionally, Cinder found herself woken by a curious roomba, but that was it. 

In the mornings, she and Miss Rose had breakfast together, and Miss Rose even made sure Cinder ate her fill! 

Still baffling, in Cinder's opinion. 

From morning to noon, Miss Rose disappeared into the depths of the Academy and Cinder explored, and in the afternoon, after a hearty lunch together, they trained scythes. 

In the evenings, both Cinder and Miss Rose just... Delighted in laying about, something Cinder never got tired of. Just, the concept! Of doing  _ nothing!  _ Without punishment! 

That last part was the important bit, in Cinder's opinion. 

After a varied period of laying around, Miss Rose usually ordered pizza or takeout and the two of them had dinner. 

Together. 

Cinder was pleasantly surprised to figure out that she liked having her meals with Miss Rose. All of the meals, without fail. 

And after dinner, the two of them just... Went to bed and talked. About things they did or liked during the day. About things happening around them. About opinions. 

Cinder never failed to assert that she found Miss Rose utterly baffling, and Miss Rose never failed to laugh about it. 

And then they just, fell asleep! 

And if Miss Rose did happen to cry at night, or if Cinder thought things were too good to be true... 

It wasn't  _ that  _ uncommon to wake up cuddling Miss Rose like a giant teddy bear, really. 

And then, one afternoon, when Miss Rose wasn’t back yet, but Cinder already was...

Summer Rose walked in through the door.

Cinder was instantly on high alert. Summer Rose was a highly dangerous Huntress, she was a Mother, and she’d already made Miss Rose cry  _ once. _ She didn’t trust her one bit.

“What’d you want?” she demanded.

As Summer Rose raised an eyebrow, Cinder was frantically looking around for a weapon, and quietly despairing at not spotting  _ anything. _ She should be better prepared, dammit!

“I was... hoping to talk with Ruby,” Summer Rose answered, looking around. “...She’s not here, is she.”

“ _ No, _ ” Cinder replied testily, and then realized, to her horror, that she just told a dangerous Huntress that there was nobody around to rescue her. “But I’m not alone! S-so leave, or...”

“I see,” Summer Rose replied, and Cinder realized that the woman didn’t believe her for a second. Oh no no no no...! “And who is here with you? I’d hate to see a  _ brave _ little girl like you alone...”

For a moment, Cinder didn’t see the woman with the white cloak, staring at her. Instead, she saw the contemptuous sneer of the Madame, and her fear skyrocketed.

The air superheated.

There was an explosion that launched the woman backwards, against the wall. 

A beat.

Summer unsheathed her weapon.

Another beat.

And in a  _ woosh _ of rose petals, Miss Rose materialized in front of Cinder, Crescent Rose primed and pointed at the Huntress. “ _ Get away from her, you- ...Mom!? _ ”

There is a long moment of tense standoff. Cinder tried not to think about how Miss Rose came to  _ her defense _ first, without even checking who she was squaring off against, nor how utterly  _ betrayed _ she’d sounded.

Then, Summer Rose sheathed her weapon with a sigh. “I’ll just... go.” And dissolved into a mass of white petals that drifted onto the floor.

Cinder let out a breath she didn’t realize she was holding.

There was a moment of silence. Then, Crescent Rose clattered onto the floor as Miss Rose pulled Cinder into a gentle hug, one that Cinder could easily escape from if she felt like it, and let out a breath of her own. “Cinder... what did she do to you? What happened...?”

“...I don’t know,” Cinder confessed. “I’m sorry, Miss Rose. I didn’t mean to...”

“It’s not your fault,” Miss Rose murmured. Her hands were shaking, but she didn’t let go.

And if Cinder simply snuggled tighter into the embrace of the girl who never failed to make her feel safe, well, that was between the two of them, wasn’t it?


End file.
